Bulletin Spring 1977

ments in Education Topic Speaker Teaching and the Teacher's Personality Dr. W. Lew Guidance in School Mrs. B. Yau & MissM.M. Chan Aptitude Tests Dr. P. K. Siu Recent Trends in Curriculum Design and Development Dr. S.C. Cheng &Dr. B. Chan Beyond the Curriculum ： The School as a Community Mr. A. Hinton Interpersonal Communication in Education Dr. L. Yam Methods and Problems in Test Moderation Dr. Peter Tam Opening Speech by Dr. Choh-Ming Li, Vice-Chancellor The School of Education has been very active on the local educational scene in recent years, often organiz­ ing educational conferences and lectures. The Chinese University has also organized international symposia, such as The Symposium on Chinese Language Teach­ ing in 1970, and local-orientated workshops such as those related to the Biology and Chemistry syllabuses in our matriculation examination held annually since 1975. Today's Conference focuses on the recent de­ velopments of curriculum design and teaching methods, and panel discussions will be held on the various aspects of education, such as teaching, curri­ culum guidance, examinations and tests, school as a community and interpersonal communication. Hong Kong's secondary education leaves much to be de­ sired and its various weaknesses stem from the lack of correct educational goals. In many secondary schools, too much emphasis is put on examinations and too much time spent on formal subject teaching, but too little attention is paid to civic education and extra- curricular activities. Pupils are trained to learn by rote and not to develop their faculty of independent thinking and their reasoning power. Many of them do not even have any civic consciousness and adequate command of languages. Many secondary school leavers are disillusioned to find that what they have learnt at school does not equip them for their jobs. School is a community by itself; educationists should make the most of it to provide an integrated edu cational system for the pupils. A sound educational system has to be founded on correct educational goals. To achieve the best results, curriculum should be designed, student guid ance conducted and tests constructed with the edu cational goals in mind. To me, an ideal educational system should aim at imparting general knowledge, developing pro ficiency in the use of languages, sharpening the facul ties of independent thinking and problem-solving, promoting physical health, developing personal integ rity and moral commitment to serve and improve society. In a word, secondary school education should be well-balanced. It is hoped that by adhering consistently to this goal, pupils may emerge, after five years of secondary school education, as sensible and responsible citizens, well-equipped to cope with the changing world. The problems to be discussed at this Conference will all be closely related to educational goals. I trust participants will be able to come up with good recommendations to improve the local secondary education.